Baseball Game Preview: Riverdale Raiders vs. Cedar Grove Saints

The Riverdale Raiders will take on the Cedar Grove Saints at 5:55 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Riverdale has six straight wins, Cedar Grove has six straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.

If Riverdale beats Cedar Grove with eight runs on Friday, it's going to be the team's new lucky number: they've won their past two matchups with that exact score. The Raiders' pitcher stepped up to hand North Clayton an 8-0 shutout on Wednesday. The result was nothing new for the Raiders, who have now won six contests by six runs or more so far this season.

Jacob Rachmann and Aiden Crittenden did most of the damage at the plate: Rachmann went a perfect 2-for-2 with two runs, one triple, and one double, while Crittenden scored a run and stole three bases while going 1-for-1. The dominant performance also gave Crittenden a new career-high in RBI (two). Another player making a difference was Keith Demps, who scored a run and stole two bases.

Meanwhile, Cedar Grove fell victim to Luella and their airtight pitching crew on Wednesday. They came up short against the Lions, falling 26-0.

Riverdale pushed their record up to 8-5 with the victory, which was their third straight at home. The home wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 10.7 runs over those games. As for Cedar Grove, their loss dropped their record down to 1-11.